The state normally gets coal lease bonus money for school construction, but those funds are drying up as the demand for coal continues to drop.

"There's no question about it, we're going to face a serious shortfall," said Mead. "The easy solution would be if we can start selling more coal, but we don't know that we can rely upon that at this point in time."

Mead says his budget provides solutions for this biennium, but it does not provide solutions beyond that.

"When 70% of you revenue comes from minerals, it's a blessing most days, but it can be difficult when you have that downturn," said Mead. "We have to look, structurally, long-term how we're going to fund schools at the level that we would like to."